Everett was born in Norfolk, England to Major Anthony Michael Everett and Sara Maclean, who was Scottish, and descended from the baronets Vyvyan of Trelowarren and the German Schmiedern barons. He has an older brother, Simon Anthony Cunningham Everett (b. 1956). He's also a grand-nephew of Donald Maclean, the (in)famous spy, with whom he shares a striking resemblance and are also both bisexual. From the age of 7 he was educated at Farleigh House preparatory school and later was educated by Benedictine monks at Ampleforth College, but dropped out of school at 15 and ran away to London to become an actor. In order to support himself, he worked as a male prostitute, or "rent boy," as he later admitted to US magazine in 1997. After being dismissed from the Central School of Speech and Drama for insubordination, he traveled to Scotland and got a job in the avant-garde Citizens' Theatre of Glasgow.

His break came with the 1982 West End production of Another Country, playing a gay schoolboy opposite Kenneth Branagh, followed by a film version in 1984 with Colin Firth. He began to develop a promising film career, until he co-starred with Bob Dylan in the huge flop Hearts of Fire (1987).

In 1989 he moved to Paris, writing a novel Hello, Darling, Are You Working? and coming out as gay, a move which some at the time perceived as damaging to his career. Returning to the public eye in The Comfort of Strangers (1990), several films of variable success followed. In 1995 he released a second novel, The Hairdresser of St. Tropez.

Everett's career was revitalized by My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), playing Julia Roberts's gay friend. In 1999, he played Madonna's gay best friend in The Next Best Thing (he also sang backup on her cover of American Pie, which is on the film's soundtrack). He has since appeared in a number of high-profile film roles, often playing heterosexual leads. He is also a Vanity Fair contributing editor.

In 2006 Everett published his memoir, Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins. In it he revealed he had had a 6-year affair with British television presenter Paula Yates. “I am mystified by my heterosexual affairs — but then I am mystified by most of my relationships," he said, with the article describing him as bisexual as opposed to homosexual. [1]

But in a radio show with Jonathan Ross, Everett described his heterosexual affairs as resulting from adventurousness: "I was basically adventurous, I think I wanted to try everything." [2]

Everett has appeared in the smash hit Shrek 2 (2004) as Prince Charming. He will reprise this role in upcoming film Shrek the Third, to be released May 18, 2007.

In 2007 Everett appeared in the Comic Relief special Comic Relief Does The Apprentice, where he left after a day after being very uncomfortable being in front of cameras without a script and dialogue.

The Italian comics character Dylan Dog, created by Tiziano Sclavi, is graphically inspired by Everett. The English actor, in turn, later appeared in an adaptation of a novel based on Sclavi's novel, Dellamorte Dellamore.